World of Twelve Loops
by slayst
Summary: The World of Twelve hereby joins the Infinite Time Loops. Welcome to the multiverse, Brotherhood of the Tofu.
1. Chapter 1

No-one knows what caused the initial problem with Yggdrasil, the World Tree. All that is known is that at some point in the multiverse's "past", Yggdrasil was damaged. In order to stablize the various universes, the gods (or Admins) put them into a "safe-mode" of sorts, where time is looped during an important portion of the universes time-line.

Originally, seven universes were started looping by the Admins: Ranma 1/2, Harry Potter, Naruto, Bleach, Evangelion, Sailor Moon, and Slayers. Other universes followed afterwards.

And now, long after the event known as 'The Crash', and long after The Doctor's own Awakening, it's Wakfu's universe that's entering the Infinite Time Loops.

Gods, dragons eggs, zap portals, and time loops... welcome to the World of Twelve.

* * *

1.01

* * *

 _The Crusty Gobball_ was a well known inn.  
Located in Emelka, a small village in northen Amakna, it was renowned across the entire country for several reasons.  
The place was cosy, the atmosphere warm, the staff friendlier than a drunk Pandawa, and the 'blanquette' was to die for.  
Alibert, the owner, was an Enutrof and former adventurer. In his prime, he'd roamed the country with his good friend Ruel Stroud, looking for a treasure that would give a sense to his life. It had been a pointless search, he'd never found anything… until he'd stopped searching. He'd just taken the decision to hung his shovel, when he found the most precious treasure he could have hoped to find. That day, Alibert adopted a young orphan, and his life began anew.  
The boy, Yugo, grew up in Emelka for twelve years without suspecting than his 'papoune' wasn't his real father. That shocking discovery came along powers over portals never seen before in the World Of Twelve, rabid Polters and Treechnid assaulting the village, and a crazy Xelor named Nox looking for the dragon Grougaloragran.  
That day was the weirdest ever lived by the young boy… at the time. In fact, it only got worst from then on.  
Yugo, on a quest to find his true family, began a journey around Amakna. He was aided in this endeavor by Az, his Tofu, and a number of friends.  
First came Ruel Stroud, his adoptive father's best friend. The old Enutrof was greedy, and prone to rambling, but his heart was in the good place and he was skilled with a shovel.  
Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove or Dally for his friends, was a Iop. He was thus an idiotic moron with an obsession for battle. He was also a Knight of the Order of the Guardians of Shushus, which made it his job to contain Rubilax, his demonic blade. His first failure had placed him in Yugo's debt when the boy freed him from the Shushu's possession, and he joined the group as repayment.  
Amalia Sheran Sharm was a Sadida princess with a thing for dolls. She also had access to devastating plant magic, and was the textbook definition of a tomboy. Her thirst for adventure had led her to fight the Polters and Treechnids, while her desire to stay the hell away from the palace had made her join Yugo, dragging her poor bodyguard with her.  
Evangelyne was a bow wielding Cra, assigned to the princess' protection. She had followed her charge out of duty at first, and out of companionship later, even if Amalia was driving her up the wall on a regular basis.  
Those colorful individuals became the core of what would later be known as The Brotherhood of the Tofu. Together, they faced numerous threats ranking from angry plucked raven dudes, to ugly hugging princesses, evil Boufbowl teams, and ultimately saved the world from rampaging Shushus.  
In the wake of the crazy Xelor seeing his plot fail miserably, Yugo had also discovered his true origin as an Eliatrope, born from a Dofus and coming from outer space. He had then reunited with Adamaï – his dragon brother – and the survivors of his species, with whom he stopping Qilby, a mad Eliatrope responsible for his people's misery and bent on destroying the World Of Twelve.  
At long last, Yugo returned to his friends and family, his mind at peace.  
He had his adoptive father, his brother, and a couple of new brothers to look after. The world was saved, he was happy, and he could now enjoy his life at its fullest…  
The loops kicked in.  
Yugo Awoke to a steaming pot of 'Special Alibert' blanquette and three kids – two years younger than he remembered them to be – asking him to play an Arena… again.  
The new Anchor promptly fainted.

* * *

Yugo's swoon lasted at most twelve seconds.  
His brain would have gladly left his body in a comatose state for longer, given the sheer weirdness of the situation, but the young Eliatrope regained consciousness anyway. He didn't really have a choice, with the three kids panicking and his father madly checking his body in search of an injury.  
"Yugo, stay with me son."  
The Eliatrope opened his weary eyes and asserted his situation. If his sense of sight was to be trusted, then his hallucination hadn't been an hallucination at all. That was… annoying.  
He really felt like cursing right now.  
"Are you hurt? Where does it hurt? Is it here? What about here? Or maybe –"  
Damn, his father was almost unstoppable by anything short of a flame-spitting Grougal when he was like this.  
But as much as he loved his father, Yugo didn't have the time to bear with his overprotectiveness. Unless his memories were faulty, he was on the day when it had all begun, almost two years in the past. He had time-traveled, somehow, and he had to figure out the how and why of it.  
The boy groaned, rubbed his hurting head – and ears, those kids were loud – and tried to appease his father.  
"I'm… fine."  
Great, he could tell that his voice was off, which meant that his adoptive father had definitely heard it too.  
"Yugo..."  
Yep, it hadn't worked, he looked even more worried now.  
"I'm fine papoune… really. I just felt… well, dizzy. The fumes from the blanquette must have got to my head."  
The Enutrof looked skeptical, but his son's weak smile managed to flip his 'papa-bear' switch to _off_. He smiled back, visibly more relaxed.  
"Don't scare me like that anymore, ok?"  
"I won't."  
Lying like this wasn't enjoyable in the slightest, but he had no choice. With the two upcoming years, his father would have many occasions to be scared for him, and with perfectly good reasons. But to tell him such a thing would be useless, as it would only scare him further.  
For a split second, Yugo hated himself.  
"Good." said Alibert. "Now, you need fresh air. Go play with your friends, I'll handle the blanquette."  
His 'friends' got overexcited.  
Yugo fought hard to repress a sigh.  
"Yes, papoune."

* * *

Emelka was truly a nice village.  
The inn was great, the bakery made many drool with its pleasing fragrances, and the giant tree casted a reassuring shadow on the entire town. Except that there was no giant tree yet, since Nox's mechanical bug hadn't been flattened by Ruel.  
Yugo was running facts around his head, while his supposed 'friends' were running around town, on an imaginary adventure.  
Unlike them, he wasn't a helpless kid anymore, he was the king of the Eliatropes, and he would solve this new mystery.  
Time-travel was supposedly impossible, but Nox had done it before, if on a smaller scale. However, the Xelor couldn't possibly be responsible. Two hundred years of studies had merely allowed him a twenty minutes jump, he couldn't have made such a breakthrough in under a year, all the more so since he no longer had the Eliacube.  
Qilby… Qilby could have done it. The traitor had the memories of every single of his past lives, he had mastered the cube. Sure, he was powerless and sealed in the White Dimension, but he could have created this time jump as a failsafe.  
It had been a bad move.  
Yugo had triggered it. And if he hadn't created a portal yet, he could still see the wakfu around him, see it flow right through his body… He had retained his abilities, all of them.  
He would do it again, and this time, he would do it better. Nox would be reasoned out of his mad gamble, or be stopped as soon as possible. The madman would just be left to rot in his endless prison.  
Checkmate, Qilby.  
The Eliatrope pictured his foe's face, and smiled. His grin grew even bigger when Ruel Stroud appeared and entered the _Crusty Gobball_ inn. When a possessed Dally followed suit, the boy was positively glowing.  
"Hey guys, sorry but I've got to go, we have a Shushu on the loose. See you later."  
Without further ado, he vanished in a swirling portal, leaving three extremely confused kids in his wake.

* * *

1.02

* * *

Yugo opened his eyes to a steaming blanquette, and let out a long string of curse words.

The nearby kids wondered when their friend had become so imaginative.

The Eliatrope was seeing this exact same blanquette for the seventh time now. Six times had he traveled through time. and he'd already seen too many tragedies, too many deaths… including his own.

If his first repeat had ended up in the same abrupt manner as his original life, the next ones had been much shorter, his last one even more so as it had come to an abrupt end when he'd tried to talk Nox out of his plan, choosing his words badly and receiving a fatal injury in retaliation.

It was clear now, the jump wasn't a failsafe, it was a trap. Qilby had managed to initiate a time loop, inescapable even through death, and Yugo would definitely end up just as crazy as the traitor if it continued any longer.

He had to make it stop… _now_. The Eliatrope opened a portal and jumped straight through it.

Reappearing by the village's entrance, he tracked down Dally's wakfu signature and blasted a ray at Rubilax as sonn as he entered his field of vision. The Shushu relinquished his control and the guardian was free again.

Without pausing, portals opened toward the forbidden forest and the Eliatrope disappeared in a blur. His path ended up moments later, in front of two startled travelers.

"Sorry Evangelyne, I'm borrowing Amalia."

Then he was gone, a Sadida princess under the arm. After a mad rush, he unceremoniously dropped her in front of the giant Treechnid.

His past-and-hopefully-future-friend got out of her stupor and opened her mouth, probably to direct one of her legendary angry rant at him. He didn't let her enough time to speak as he knelt before her.

"I apologize for this, princess Sheran Sharm, but I heard about your dream and I need your help. My name is Yugo of Emelka, and this is the Venerable Soft Oak. He's the one responsible for the Polters' attacks, though someone else is the cause of his ire. Please, appease him, so that I can deal with the real culprit."

She blinked a few times.. and ultimately nodded, silently moving towards the giant tree.

The Eliatrope almost sighed in relief.

He'd escape the divine punishment… well, he'd retarded it, which was good enough for now.

The only question left was 'how could he avoid a second beating from a vengeful Cra?'

* * *

It turned out that he couldn't.

Evangelyne had fired eight arrows of various elements before he could even muster a word, and only Amalia' express intervention had kept her from finishing him.

And now, the blonde was grilling him, as if his injuries weren't painful enough by themselves.

"Look, I understand that you had the means to stop the attacks and decided to act, but what I don't understand is why you kidnapped Amalia. What prevented you from explaining the situation beforehand?"

"I was in a hurry?" he tried, only eliciting a sigh from the Cra.

"What _I_ don't understand –" said the Sadida "– is why you seem to know us, even though I'm sure that we've never seen you before in our entire lives."

Then, she raised a finger before carrying on with her analysis.

"And aside from Eva, my father's the only one who knows about my dream, so I'd really like to know where you could have heard about it. Are you having prophetic dreams too, Yugo of Emelka?"

The Eliatrope could only see two answers to that particular question.

He could lie, it would be easy. He'd done so before after all. But it hadn't worked then, so why would he bother?

"No Amalia, I don't have prophetic dreams. I just traveled back in time."

Three…

Two…

One…

"WHAAAAT?"

He winced.

They just had to train to be so perfectly synchronized, it was the only explanation.

Yugo adopted his most solemn tone and began to speak.

"Your name is Amalia Sheran Sharm, princess of the Sadida kingdom, daughter of King Oakheart, and sister to Prince Armand. And you –" he pointed to the Cra "– are Evangelyne, Amalia's bodyguard and sister to Cleome. The two of you traveled to this forest after a dream sent to you by Sadida, and I know this because it's something that you told me yourselves."

Their shocked expression were somewhat funny, but it wouldn't do to laugh now.

He focused and kept on talking.

"Nox, the man who angered the Great Oak and caused those attacks, is in possession of something known as the Eliacube. The cube is an artifact belonging to the Eliatropes, my people. The first time around, my brother and I accidentally freed Qilby, a traitor to my kind, from within its depths, and he trapped me in time. As I said before, I've lived through those events before. This is in fact my seventh repeat, and I want to retrieve the cube to confront the traitor and prevent an eighth one. Not dying would be nice too."

They winced, but he ignored it.

"I won't ask you to help me, that task is one I must do by myself. But when it will finally be over…"

Now was the perfect opportunity to use what Adamaï had dubbed the "Yugo Smile n°3".

"I wouldn't say no to a little adventuring, and I could really use some friends."

The girls' incredulous faces, slowly morphing into soft smiles, were answers by themselves.

Yugo Smile n°3, success.

* * *

Returning to Emelka had been easy. The girls had their domesticated Dragoturkeys, and Yugo had just zapped his way back in record time.

Explaining his situation to a confused Dally, a grumpy Ruel, and his worried father, had been slightly harder. Thankfully, he had enough proofs to corroborate his words.

He'd also refrained from mentioning too much, as to avoid unnecessary unease. Dally and Evangeline wouldn't have taken the news of a relationship that well, Ruel would have instantly refused the idea of him raising another Drheller, and his papoune would have freaked out at the sheer amount of dangerous situations he'd found himself into… or was about to find himself into.

It's partly because of this that, when the next part of his plan – which was extremely hazardous – unfolded, he did something he'd never thought he'd ever do.

He did a simple gesture toward his interlocutor… and time froze.

"Thank you."

Those simple words got a frown from the man facing him.

"This is my strongest spell, how can you beunaffected?"

"Your spells haven't worked on me in years, Nox."

"Years?"

His confusion was evident, and tainted with a faint trace of desire. The Xelor was facing an unknown phenomenon, and he wanted… no, needed to understand it.

"I'm willing to explain… if you promise not to harm my friends."

He needed that assurance. His plan was risky, he knew it, this exact same conversation having evolved into a blood bath the last time around. But while he could do with another death, the same wasn't true for his friends, and he never wanted to see them hurt ever again.

"I suppose I can do that, yes." shrugged the man.

Yugo pushed out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding.

"Now, tell me kid, who are you and what nefarious plan do you need my help for?"

"Why do you assume that I have a nefarious plan?"

The Xelor chuckled.

"Be serious kid, you lured me here by feeding residual energy from the dragon Grougaloragran to my noxines, and immediately asked me to stop time to keep our audience from this discussion. You can't have noble intentions."

Well, he was right, and wrong. His intentions weren't so noble, but the source of his wrath deserved it entirely, and his actions would probably save countless lives. Still, Yugo couldn't believe what he was about to do…

"You mean, like you? Well, going back to your family is noble enough, I guess."

He needed to get through to Nox. Those words, and the ones he was about to use, would definitely do the trick.

"How do you –"

"Know about it? Because you told me yourself. Because while you're trying to go back, I'm trying to stay put. I'm stuck in a time loop, Nox, and I've seen it before. I've seen you try, and I've seen you fail."

The Xelor's entire body started trembling at those words.

Yugo couldn't tell if the man was shocked at the prospect of a time loop, felling murderous after having his dream destroyed by a kid, or a combination of both.

"My name is Yugo, and I'm an Eliatrope. The Eliacube was made by Chibi, my people's greatest scientist, but it was never intended as a time travel device. No matter how much wakfu you feed it with, you'll never get more than a twenty minutes jump." he let it sunk for a moment. His next words were but a whisper. "I'm sorry, Nox, but your quest is a fool's errand."

The Eliatrope stayed perfectly still when the man stopped shaking and grabbed the clock hand that had just materialized in mid-air.

"What proofs do you have?" he hissed, his voice low and dripping with poison. "Why should I trust any word coming from you?"

"Because I can lead you to the man who, I believe, is the source of that voice in your head."

The man's mask glared even harder, but the clock hand didn't move.

Yugo took it as an invitation to keep talking.

"The Eliacube works as a prison for a traitor to my kind. Like me, Qilby is one of the six firstborns. We were the first Eliatropes created by the goddess at the dawn of time, and while we aren't immortal, our wakfu returns to our Dofus upon death, so that we can be born again. But Qilby is a special case. While we're forgetting our past lives, he remembers them all. It drove him crazy, and he sold us to our enemies. I defeated him myself, loosing my life in the process, and he was exiled in a dimension of endless whiteness within the cube for all eternity. He got even madder in there, but even missing an arm and with his mind in shambles, he still had thousands of years of knowledge and experiences, and wanted nothing more than to be set free. I think that he found a way to affect the cube and, through it, you."

"So this Qilby… tricked me?"

"It's only a theory, but that's the conclusion my brother and I reached. It's not surprising though, when you know that he tricked us too and came this close to destroying the World of Twelve. We managed to stop him, but that's when he… got me."

"Those time loops… he's responsible too?"

The Eliatrope nodded.

"So you want the cube."

"I _need_ the damn cube, I don't want it. The only thing I want right now is to get out of this nightmare where I can't even _die_ properly."

Yugo unconsciously began to clench his hands, a wrathful spark invading his eyes. His voice even lost its warmth, becoming colder and louder with each word.

"I want to live my life with my friends and my family. I want to reunite with my people. I want those loops to end, before they become my own White Dimension, and I end up MADDER THAN QILBY EVER WAS."

The Eliatrope's yells reverberated around for a moment, diminishing to whispers before a heavy silence fell on the out-of-time scene.

"Sorry." finally managed the boy, his breath short and his hands slowly ceasing to shake. "That was uncalled for."

"There's no need to apologize." solemnly said the Xelor. "I understand."

"Th… Thank you for –"

"Don't." interrupted the man. "I may understand, but I don't trust you."

His clock hand drawing closer made that point even clearer.

"Me neither Nox, you killed my friends and gutted me not two hours ago."

Well, it had gone fairly smoothly up until now – bar the little breakdown and the sharp hand brushing against his jugular –, but here came the hardest part. This was the main reason as to why Yugo had asked for a time stop.

"It doesn't mean that we can't get past it and work together. You provide the cube, I provide Qilby, and we get answers out of him. I get to end this, you get to put your family's memories to rest. And if, somehow, he can make you return to them… I'll help you make your dream into a reality."

On the list of things he'd never thought he'd do or say, this pact with the devil was at least in the top ten.

The man seemed to ponder his thoughts for what felt like an eternity.

Slowly, surely, he lowered his clock hand.

"This is… acceptable."

The Xelor and the Eliatrope shook hands.

It had now made it into the top three.

* * *

Yugo watched Nox teleport away, on his way to retrieve the cube. Their deal was made, and he was that much closer to ending this nightmare.

"YUGO!"

Right, he 'd momentarily forgotten about them.

With the Xelor away, time had resumed at a normal pace, and he would have to explain why his former enemy was now – if only temporarily – an ally, preferably without revealing the true extend of this partnership.

He couldn't wait to be out of this mess, he truly hated the lies and half-truths.

* * *

The White Dimension.

No matter where Qilby looked, he couldn't see a thing. The lack of light wasn't the problem here, the lack of anything _but_ light was. The dimension was a blank slate where space was distorted unto itself, creating an endless void, and the blinding light made it truly impossible to rest. Time itself was wrecked, making seconds look like centuries. He wasn't even sure how much time he'd spent in this whiteness, but he'd long since understood that dying wasn't an option either. The prisoner could only suffer in his loneliness.

"HellooOooo." suddenly singsonged a voice.

Qilby hallowed himself a smile. His sister's voice was frequent in the whiteness, she helped to keep his awake nightmares away.

He came face to face with a man wrapped in bandages.

That… wasn't Shinonome.

He'd been fooled by the sweet tone, but had missed the sadistic undertone entirely.

"W… who are you? How did you enter this dimension?"

He couldn't even recognized himself, his own voice sounding strange to his ears. He hadn't spoken a word in… forever.

"The exact same voice." whispered the man, before continuing in a harsher tone. "You may call me Nox. As for how I got here, I simply came with one of our mutual acquaintances." he explained, designating a point behind him.

Qilby turned to see this 'acquaintance'.  
His last fragile piece of sanity threatened to disappear.

"Yu… Yugo?"

"Hello, Qilby."

The traitor felt his anger rise at the sight of his foe and past-king in front of him. He'd been the one who'd put him in here, the one who had submitted him to this nightmare…And he had just used his name.

"Tell me, since you know your subject when it comes to time travel and the Eliacube, how much wakfu would we need to have Nox do a two hundred years trip to the past?"

The prisoner didn't even hear his jailor's word, there was only one thing on his mind.

Yugo knew his name.

"You… remember me."

"Oooh, I remember all right, you made sure of that. Now answer the question."

"You're young again… so you had to die… but you have your memories..."

"Answer the question before I lose patience and rip your remaining arm from your body." growled this Nox character.

"He would totally do it, you know."

"It makes no sense." said the Eliatrope, completely ignoring his kind-of-brother and the bandaged man. Even his wrath toward his people had dimmed by now, confusion taking its place.

"We're losing time. Here, let me handle it."

Qilby was broken out of his musing when he was suddenly pinned to the ground by a clock hand going through his robes.

"Did you know, Eliatrope –" said Nox, taking hold of his arm. "– that an adult body contains precisely two hundred and six bones… well, most do anyway."

A loud cracking noise echoed.

Qilby knew pain.

"That makes one. One hundred and seventy five to go."

* * *

Yugo desperately wanted to yell.

Nox was way past yelling.

Qilby… ok, _he_ was yelling.

The traitor had begun to speak after the sixth bone turned to smithereens, but his words hadn't really satisfied the Xelor. Nox had become more creative, but the answers had stayed the same. After reaching the ribs, he'd finally had to resign himself. A two hundred year leap in time was impossible to achieve, he couldn't rejoin with his family.

Something had broken in him, tears had flowed down his face, and Qilby's muffled sobs had instantly morph into full-out shouts of pain.

Yugo had had to force him down immediately, as he'd wanted his own question answered. He'd himself been sorely unsatisfied when Qilby had just laughed bitterly and called him a fool. If he couldn't power a two hundred year time jump, he most certainly couldn't create a stable time loop. The traitor had then mocked him, saying that his 'king' had probably angered the goddess Eliatrope… that he deserved every second of his own curse for what he'd done to him.

Yugo had stayed silent, looked the other way and let Nox do his thing.

And so, Qilby was yelling.

Well, more like trying to. He appeared to have some difficulty speaking… or breathing, really.

The time traveler honestly didn't care. As long as the scum stayed alive, there would be no returning to his Dofus and it meant no freshly resurrected crazy baby Eliatrope with a god complex after his head.

Another crushing sound was heard, followed by a choking noise and ultimately, silence.

The Xelor released a small snicker and joined his partner in crime. He looked tired, almost dead on his feet, but his steady breath and calm posture truly showed how much weight had just left his shoulders.

"So, you're done?" asked the Eliatrope, ready to tap into the Eliacube's vast powers to open the portal.

"Yes, that is good enough. It will take a few months to heal." replied Nox, voice slightly hoarse.

"I thought you would have been harsher." admitted Yugo, somewhat perplex.

The man smiled.

"That would be in real time. Our friend is up to five centuries of pain, six if I miscalculated the dilatation field on the dimension."

Despite the graveness and horror of that statement, Yugo smiled back. That surely was more like him.

The passage to The World of Twelve opened and the two visitors left the dimension, leaving a corpse-like Qilby behind them.

* * *

Yugo's grim mood wasn't helped by the sudden blanquette he opened his eyes to.

Another repeat… at least, he hadn't died this time.

The Eliatrope rubbed his temples, trying to shield away from the annoying mouthy kids and their annoying Arena.

He was so out of it that, if he did play, he would end up either killing someone, running away from civilization, or both.

So he amicably told them that he was busy, and tried to enjoy the silence…

No, he couldn't, he had too much to think about.

He had spent the rest of his last repeat in some kind of foggy daze created by conflicting feelings.

He was angry at himself for letting someone be tortured, even more so since he'd verified Qilby's claim with Grougaloragran, Phaeris and Balthazar. The three dragons had all confirmed the man's words, he truly couldn't be responsible for the loops.

Yugo knew that he shouldn't have allowed Nox to do those things… but his rational mind also kept on telling him that the traitor had deserved it anyway after his betrayal and what he'd done to his friends, while his slightly less rational mind was extremely pleased at the guy's misery.

He felt sick.

But it was over now. Those things were stuck in a past-future of sort, and they would never happen again…

So why did he kept thinking about them?

Why couldn't those memories just leave him alone?

Why couldn't he just forget?

He wanted to forget.

No, he _needed_ to forget!

He HAD to –

"Yugo, my little piwi… are you okay?"

The Eliatrope threw himself at his startled father… and wept.

* * *

1.03

* * *

Yugo didn't know what to think of this new repeat.

He'd opened his eyes to the same steaming blanquette – which he'd taken a licking to insulting every time – helped an idiotic Iop get rid of Rubilax's influence, and prevented his father from being turned into a tree. Then he'd traveled to the Forbidden Forest with Ruel and Percedal, met Evangelyne and Amalia, and stopped the Polters' attacks. When Nox had later attacked, the Eliotrope had blurred a speech he now had down to a science thanks to the repeats, and the Xelor had teleported away. At this point, he was either gone for good – Yugo wasn't even mentioning the time loop anymore, but his speech was just _that_ good – or would meet them in approximately a week with a change of heart and ask to join the Brotherhood to find a new reason to live – which had only happened twice, but Yugo had truly liked it.

In other words, the Eliatrope had saved the day like he usually did, and everything had worked out pretty well so far… except for one tiny little detail that just kept nagging him.

WHY WAS HE A GIRL?

"Come on now, Missy. We have to find you a new family." said the old Enutrof, gently patting his little charge's head. The Cra and the Sadida were giving her reassuring smiles, while the Iop was just drooling and ogling her cleavage, where Az had hidden earlier.

The Eliatrope felt like banging his… her head against the Zap Portal. If she did it with enough conviction, she may be able to open her eyes to a blanquette.

And this time, she wouldn't even complain.

* * *

1.04

* * *

When Yugo had opened his eyes to the thin and delicate hands of Yagea, his female self, he'd been quite puzzled.

Still, he'd managed, even if it had taken some getting used to – mainly regarding the group's new dynamic – and some ungetting used to – mostly regarding old masculine habits, like blushing deep red and turning around whenever he saw a feminine's body… mostly Amalia's.

But _this…_

This just couldn't be real.

He couldn't possibly be in a carriage, writs bounded and feet bare, with three other seated individuals, and armed guards treating him like a prisoner. The impossible carriage couldn't possibly be traveling through high snowy mountains either.

He was supposed to insult a blanquette… where was his blanquette?

Not around, that was for sure. He knew his geography of the World of Twelve pretty well, and he'd never heard of a world called Nirn, a continent called Tamriel, or a country called Skyrim. Yes, that was the name of the place he was currently in, his memories were foggy but he still knew that much.

Except that he wasn't supposed to have any memories about a place he'd never been too or even heard about before.

And his body… well, he was male, which was good, but he was definitely not a kid, nor an Eliatrope anymore. He had scales, and a tail.

Argonian that was what he was now.

Not for long apparently, the chopping block awaited him… and he couldn't create any portal.

This just couldn't be real.

* * *

"Are you a relative of one of the Riften dock workers, Argonian?" asked the guard, eying his listing.

"No, I'm… I'm not an Argonian." hastily replied Yugo.

That got him a few raised eyebrows.

"Well, that is one good imitation then." joked the man.

"No, you don't understand. I'm not supposed to be here."

"Hm… he's right Captain. He's not on the list."  
"Forget the list. The lizard goes to the block."

"By your orders, Captain. Follow the Captain, prisoner."

"You're making a mistake. I'm an Eliatrope from the World of Twelve and –"

The woman backhanded him. He felt to the ground, head spinning, and things went black.

* * *

Yugo was shaken awake by a gauntleted hand. He felt the cold metal on his scales, and cursed silently at the fact that he still had scales.

"You slept long enough, Argonian. Your turn has come."

His turn…

The misplaced time-traveler felt the wood again his neck, and he knew. He opened his eyes to a pile of cooling bodies.

And severed heads.

And hovering over him, was a masked executioner with a raising bloodied axe.

Yugo closed his eyes. This nightmare would at least have been quick.

" **ROOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAR!"**

What?

"What in Oblivion is that? Sentry?"

"On the tower."

Yugo decided to take a peek. What he saw was… disturbing.

"Who's that?"

A man was standing on the tower in front of him. He was dressed in a ridiculous outfit of conflicting orange and purple, and was making faces, waving his arms around and screaming like a lunatic.

" **ROOOAAAR! Fear me, mortals! I am the end of happiness, the bringer of** **death** **, the… wait,** **Scaly, is that you** **?"**

The man had fixed his gaze on the Argonian, and his eyes had began to shine… literally. There were twinkling like crazy, and the creepiest smile Yugo had ever seen – and that was saying something, since he'd fought _Qilby_ – began to bloom on his face.

Then the guy ran down the wall, still screaming.

" **Scaaaaaaly, I missed you."**

"Shoot that thing!" ordered the Captain.

Arrows were fired… and turned into birds.

"Hey, that's not very nice." said the man, clearly an Imperial, weird echo gone from his voice. Now that he was closer, his white beard and hair were clearly visible, as were his slitted yellow eyes.

"Is that really a way to welcome a Prince?"

Yugo somehow heard the capital letter, and he began to fear for his life. If his weird memories were true, then that… thing, was way more dangerous than an axe to the head.

"Don't worry though, I understand perfectly and I won't hold it against you." beamed the creature. "You were expecting Alduin, and you're disappointed. But you've got to try and see it from my point of view. Ghosty isn't Awake this time around, and my good buddy Scaly over there… well, neither, or he would have stopped me by now. Lydia's Awake alright, but she threatened to shoot me with a customized Desert Eagle Mk XIX if I ever teleported in Breezhome again, and I rather like my head where it is, thank you. I could always use the front door, sure, but… meh. So here I was, alone for this loop, and I got bored… it happens, right? So I may have waited for the giant lizard to come out of his temporary retirement and dealt with him myself… sorry Scaly, I hijacked a third of your destiny. But hey, I replaced him, right?"

His words didn't registered in the Argonian's head… except for one.

"This… loop?" mustered weakly the confused boy.

The thing's attitude change briefly. He tensed, and his eyes sharpened for a second… then he was back to his goofy self and turned a huge smile toward his stunned audience while patting Yugo on the head.

"Anyway, the guy still has two third to do, so he can't really die here now, can he? Don't worry, he'll be home by midnight."

The spectators gasped as the Argonian's sight filled with purple.

* * *

Yugo had traveled by portals before. He was an Eliatrope after all, it was their thing.

But this portal was… he didn't truly know how to explain it, but it felt wrong… twisted. So much that, when the trip ended, he immediately doubled over and violently emptied his bowel.

"My, what a fragile young man. You should have that weak stomach checked, my friend. Lydia won't be happy if you keep vomiting on her floor."

" _No, I won't."_ hissed a female voice that surely belonged to this 'Lydia'. _"What did I tell you, Hero, about your teleportations?"_

"Not to do any, unless it is a matter of life and death." answered mechanically the now dubbed Hero.

" _And…?"_

"And it is, of course. I certainly don't teleport random barfing Argonians around the country for fun, that is Sanguine's job."

"So… visiting looper?" asked Lydia, now sounding curious and slightly excited.

"I believe so, yes. Possibly a new one."

"Sweet, I never gave the talk before."

"Which one?" asked Hero, mirth in his voice.

"What are you… talking about?" weakly managed the Argonian, slowly raising from his prostrated position on the floor.

"Time has been repeating itself for you, right?" asked the Prince in an Imperial guise. "You can't explain it, but somehow, you keep awakening into your past. Your memory and skills remain intact, but the others simply forget. Then, weird things start to happen, like a switched gender or a different race, and you begin to wonder if the gods aren't after you. But when the next step comes, and you awake to an entirely different world than the one you're used to, you immediately think that you've finally lost your head… that you've got mad."

The Argonian opened his mouth, but no sound came out. After a handful of seconds, he nodded hesitantly.

"Then worry not my friend, you certainly haven't." beamed the man.

"You can trust him on that, he knows madness." said Lydia, that he could now see her properly. The brunette was pretty, and smiling warmly at him. "Don't trust him for anything else though." she then stage-whispered.

"Hey!"

The woman smirked at the frowning Hero.

"If I'm not crazy…" intervened Yugo "What's happening exactly?"

"A tree is broken." answered Hero.

"… what?"

"That's the short version, Lydia will handle the long one. I'm out of here."

"Wait, I don't have a –"

The Prince was swallowed by a swirling vortex.

"– spare guide." finished the woman with a growl. "I'm _so_ kicking his sorry ass later."

* * *

After the Prince's departure, Lydia had quickly cleaned the mess on the floor. She'd also grabbed food and water, so that the Argonian – who'd introduced himself as Yugo of Emelka – could refresh himself. She was now seated in the front room, in a comfortable silence only disturbed by the gulping sounds made by her visitor.

"You can eat and listen at the same time, right?" she inquired.

He nodded, good. She clearly could have waited until he was finished to move unto her speech, but that would be easier.

"Well, the first things you need to know about the loops, is that they aren't your fault. It's not a form of divine punishment for something that happened in your home universe, nor anything of the sort. They _are_ divine in origins, but they're more like a universal safety… kinda."

His scaly face shifted slightly and she saw relief in his eyes.

"Do you know what a computer is?"

He shook his head.

"Advanced technology then? Steam-powered engines, maybe?"

"Well, Sufokians have things like that in their submarines and Xelors make some pretty advanced things with clockworks." said Yugo, before stroking his chin, as if lost in thoughts. "There's also the Zinit."

"The what?"

"Zinit, an Eliatrope spaceship. But it's working on wakfu, so I don't know if it counts."

He didn't know what a computer was, but he had a freaking spaceship? Maybe he was from one of those magitech kind of loops.

"Well, picture the inner working of that ship. When you enter a command through… whatever it is you're using –"

"The Eliacube." provided the Argonian.

"Right. So, when you use this Eliacube and ask the ship to do something, it process your order, and apply it if it is implemented in his inner coding. That's what a computer is, a device that can acquire data, manipulate it, and give you a result, either through a screen or by triggering an action from some other device."

The Argonian nodded, and grabbed another pastry.

"Now, bear with me, because it gets complicated. Reality, all of it, is basically a computer. It is in the form of a divine tree, itself made out of an infinity of universes, each universe being like a branch. The tree's called Yggdrasil… and it's broken."

The new looper did an amazing spit-take.

"Something _broke_ reality?"

"Not entirely, and we don't know precisely what did it, but yes."

"And the repeats..."

"The loops are a way for the Gods tending to Yggdrasil – we call them Administrators, or Admins, for short – to keep the system running while they fix reality."

The visitor stayed silent for a long time, and ultimately sighed.

"There's nothing I can do, right?"

"For Yggdrasil, no, not really. You can help your world though."

"How?" asked the Argonian.

"You're clearly the Anchor, it means that the loop's stability depends of you. Just try not to create bigger problems for the Admins by breaking your world's rules too much."

"What do you mean, breaking the rules?"

"Well, things like using out-of-loop abilities carelessly and making a mess of the local physic. You'll die stupidly, the loop will crash, and you'll loop in a place you don't want to loop into."

"Abilities?"

"Indeed. When you loop in other universes – that's a fused loop, and what you're living right now – you will sometime gain access to their local form of magic, energy, or whatever. The majority of them, including our spells and the Thu'um, will stay with you when you go back to your own branch."

The Argonian's eyes were sparkling now.

"I'll get new powers? That's awesome." he beamed.

Lydia chuckled at the young man's enthusiasm.

"Wait, are you an… Anchor too?" suddenly asked Yugo.

"No, that would be the Dragonborn, the man you're replacing."

"Dragonborn? Is that really a name?"

"No, it's his title. Our loop is slightly damaged, and if he eventually gains the name Ysmir after being acknowledged by the Greybeards, his base name keeps changing, along with his gender, and his race. One day he's a female Imperial called Henrietta, and the next he's a male Khajiit named D'zark. Same goes for our two other Anchors."

"I was a girl, once." suddenly said the Argonian, alarmed. "Does this mean that my loop is damaged?"

"If it only happened once, then probably not." answer Lydia. "It'll definitely happen again though, gender-bender is a fairly common Variant in the loops."

"Great."

Yugo was clearly unexcited at the idea of another experience as a girl.

Then his eyes widened and he jump out of his seat.

"Wait a minute. You said that you're not an Anchor… what exactly is an Anchor then? And what are you?"

"An Anchor is a looper selected by Yggdrasil to always be Awake. He also acts as a core for the loop he's currently in. If you're the only Anchor around, and you die, the entire loop will crash and you'll begin a new one. As for me, I am just a regular looper. I'm looping, but not as frequently as an Anchor. If I hadn't been Awake, the Lydia you would have met would have been what I was before, without the extra experiences and abilities."

"But… what makes a looper exactly?"

"Proximity and emotional connection to the Anchor, mostly."

"So, my friends will loop too." said Yugo, relief evident in his voice.

"They should, yes." answered Lydia.

"Should?" asked the Argonian, tensing.

Great, she'd made him freak out.

"It's… complicated." she began. "If you're unlucky, you may be in a case similar to ours. As I told you, this loop is damage, but it used to be much worse. The Dragonborn stayed alone for… quite some time. Then two sub-branches activated – it's even more complicated, don't ask – and he was joined by two other Anchors, namely the Nerevarine and the Hero of Kvatch that you've already met. I Awoke a few hundred loops later."

"A FEW HUNDRED?"

Okay, that was much worse.

"Please, calm down."

"I CAN'T DO THIS FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS!"

"I'm sorry, but you'll have to." she replied. "It's a strange fate, I know, but –"

"Strange? This isn't strange, THIS IS MADNESS."

"Sorry my friend, wrong universe." calmly said the Hero of Kvatch, emerging from a portal.

Startled by the sudden arrival, Yugo fell back in his chair. A small orb of greenish light hit him, and his anger was suddenly gone.

"You were eavesdropping to make your grand entrance?" asked Lydia, eyebrow raised.

"No, I'm just that lucky. And I'll have you know that if I had eavesdropped, I would have totally dressed as a Spartiate, so don't complain." answered the daedra.

"Thank Divines, we avoided that." smirked the huscarl. "Where were you by the way?"

"Convincing Herm to push Miraak in a pool of acid."

Lydia blinked.

And again.

"Why?" she finally managed.

"Our friend here was distressed enough. He didn't need that."

"That's… very kind of you, I suppose. You dealt with Harkon too?"

"Created a sun in his chapel." said the Anchor, his smile becoming disturbingly shark-like.

"Toasted vampire… I approve."

"I knew you would." he smirked, before turning to a still silent Argonian. "Now, let's deal with you my friend. You believe that the loops are madness… that you'll end up crazy?"

The visiting Anchor was too calm to answer, but he managed a small nod.

"Then I ask you, what's wrong with madness? It makes your brain work, stimulates your imagination – creativity and insanity are first cousins twice removed, after all. – and can even keep you alive sometimes. Hell, I survived my baseline by _becoming_ madness. There's madness in every sudden impulse, in every fear and every hope… even in love." said the Prince.

Lydia could tell that those word had managed to shake the hexed Argonian, even if he was clearly not entirely convinced yet.

"I know that madness is mostly seen as a disorder, something that can turn even the most virtuous man into the most sinful criminal… and it definitely can." continued the man "But I'm not telling you to go into a frenzy and kill thousands. I'm telling you to focus your madness on who you are and who you want to be when your friends eventually start looping. Save people if that's your thing, and if it's not, then don't. Play sports or be a lazy ass, practice martial arts or become a ballet dancer, meditate if you need to, or hunt enormous monsters if that's what calms you. Raise a pet, redeem your enemies, or be inventive and raise your enemies. You can also study sciences, geography, languages, quantum physic, magic, try you hands at computer engineering or initiate a space program and launch yourself among the stars."

The Hero was now eye to eye with Yugo, and his face was dead serious.

"The loops are madness, all right, but they can't make you into something you're not, my friend. Only one person gets to choose who you become, and that is you. You have all the time in the world… do try not to loose any."

With a wave of the hand, the Oblivion-era Anchor released the calming spell he'd applied earlier, and vanished in another teleportation. His job here was done.

Lydia watched the silent Argonian with a small smile.

The Hero could be an ass, and he was prone to randomness, but he sure knew how to make a good speech. The debates he occasionally had with an ascended Martin Septim were definitely a good thing.

Then she remember that the bastard had yet again teleported around the house, and hadn't provided her with a spare guide.

Her smile vanished, and she cursed silently.

She would definitely shoot him… in the head… with holy bullets… explosive ones.

* * *

Yugo hadn't said a word in the last half an hour. He'd remained in his seat, glazed-over eyes looking into nothingness.

When he eventually broke out of his trance, he immediately turned to Lydia and bowed his head as low as possible.

"I'm sorry for my outburst, Lady Lydia." politely said the Argonian.

The huscarl was happy to hear genuine remorse in his voice.

"I'm no lady, Yugo. And it's okay, I shouldn't have broken the news to you like that." she replied in a sweet voice, clearly showing that his apologies were accepted.

"But still… you were only trying to help and… I lashed out on you…"

"You were scared, that's perfectly understandable. Even more so if your baseline is a bad one."

"Baseline, Hero used that word when he…" the Argonian coughed, ashamed of the dressing down he'd received. "What is it?"

"Eager to learn, aren't you?" smiled the Nord. "Well, baseline is how your life went the first time around, everything you did before your first loop. As Anchor you remember the true baseline, but don't forget that loopers can Awaken after a Variant. In which case, they will believe that Variant to be the baseline, and you'll have to fix that."

"Variants are loops with modifications, right? Like the one where I was a girl?"

"Exactly." confirmed Lydia. "But pretty much anything can come up. There's a list of the most commonly encountered in the guide, and you'll see that some of them are funny, some extremely weird, and others are just –" She winced, remembering a few of her own experiences. "– unpleasant."

Before her visitor could get worried, she resumed with her explanations.

"Anyway, since our dear Hero of Kvatch didn't stick around long enough to give you a guide –"

Lydia nonchalantly lifted her hand, and a book appeared in it.

"– I'll just have to give you mine."

It surprised Yugo quite nicely.

"How did you –"

"Subspace pocket, page seventeen through twenty-four." she replied, stuffing the book in his hands. "A little trick that allows loopers to store objects and keep them from one loop to the next. Extremely useful, when you can access it."

The Argonien raised a scaly eyebrow.

"The loops can get capricious sometimes, and lock your Pocket and out-of-loop abilities." she explained. "But you need to _have_ a Pocket first, so why don't you take a peek at that book? When you'll at least have the first forty-two pages down, you should move to this."

She produced another tome, ' _An Explorer's Guide to Skyrim: Looping Edition'_ , and put it on the table.

"Hero dealt with the loop's main events, but you should still read about them. In the meantime, I'll go get a few things you'll need from Belethor's and Warmaiden's, we'll talk about what you want to do when I get back. Is that fine with you?"

"It is." said the visitor with a smile. "Thank you Lydia."

The huscarl simply smiled back.

"You're welcome."

As she left, the visiting Anchor diving into the book, Lydia was silently contemplating how his mindset had evolved.

He'd first gone from frightened at the potential danger that Hero and herself represented, to relieved after discovering that the loops weren't his fault, to curious as to their true meaning. He'd then be happy about his friends potentially looping and the hope of new abilities, before becoming equally angered at the prospect of doing this for Yggdrasil knows how long. When Hero had done his shrink and calmed him down, he'd felt ashamed, which had resulted in him acting all apologetic. And ultimately, after she'd assured him that his earlier reaction was perfectly acceptable and comprehensible, he'd been back to curious in a matter of seconds, before finishing on a thankful tone…

That looper was a kid, she was sure of it. Or at least, he'd been a kid in his baseline.

That was the only explanation as to how he could switch between moods so quickly… that or he was something akin to a certain Mad God, which was extremely doubtful as he would have reacted differently to the loops' own madness.

Well, she hadn't expected her first multiverse talk to be so bumpy, but it had worked out in the end. And even though it hurt her to admit it, it was mostly thanks to the Hero of Kvatch.

Maybe she wouldn't have to maim him too badly after all.

* * *

That book was fascinating… and disturbing.

The Eliatrope, currently an Argonian, had barely went over the epilogue and three proper chapters, but his head was already bursting with knowledge, and questions of which he was supposed to find the answers further down the book.

This guide to the loops was part-universal answer to every single question ever asked, and part headache… in fact, he had one already.

"Hey there." called Lydia as she entered the house.

She was back? So soon?

Either her shopping list was extremely small, or he had lost track of time.

Probably the second, since he _had_ read a little over fifty pages.

"Still in the guide huh?" she remarked.

Yugo blushed slightly, and nodded.

"Yes, I got carried away."

"I did the same when my Anchor gave it to me. It's so well written – I blame Hermione Granger – that I didn't take the time to look our own branch's history. When he asked me two days later what I wanted to do about some vampire lord, I had no idea what he was talking about and he had to make me a summary." she admitted with a smile.

The Eliatrope nodded, as that thing was indeed well written.

"And now, I'll tell you what he told me when he finished his explanation. 'The book can wait for you, since it's now yours to take. But the loop isn't waiting, and neither am I, so stuff that thing in your satchel and focus.'"

"But… I don't have a –"

"Now you do." happily said the Nord, dropping a leather pouch on his laps.

The Eliatrope's eyes traveled from the bag to the looper, and he sighed.

"Let me guess… he told you that too?"

"Yup"

"Fine." gave in Yugo, putting the guide away. "Do I have to read the other book or can you make me a summary?"

The huscarl shrugged.

"Both options are available, which one do you prefer?"

"I wouldn't say no to a summary. And if I need a reminder, I can always read the book later."

"That's the spirit." approved Lydia. "Now, this loop is known around the multiverse as 'The Elder Scrolls' Branch. As I told you earlier, you're currently replacing the Dragonborn, Anchor of the Skyrim sub-branch, which makes you destined by the gods – mostly Akatosh – to face three major threats to this world: Alduin, the harbinger of the end of time, Harkon, a vampire lord, and Miraak, the first Dragonborn."

"But if I'm the one supposed to do this, how did Hero handled them?"

"Pretty easily, in fact. During his baseline, he was the Divine Crusader, another favorite of the Divines. Add to that that he mantled the Mad God, and it's no wonder that he can give the bird to such a tiny thing as a little destiny. Oh, and he's a looper, that's also a big advantage when it comes to utterly breaking prophecies."

"So… you could have done it too?"

"Not as easily at the moment." she admitted. "But when I'll have a few more loops behind me, and some new tricks to use, definitely."

At that, Yugo remembered about something he'd read in the guide and wanted precisions about.

"Hey, Lydia, I was wondering something about this 'formative loops' concept in chapter three. It says that it only apply to a few loopers, as it mostly depends on one's mindset, but –"

The Argonian's inquiry was interrupted by yet again another portal.

"Good news, I -"

The Hero's speech was equally interrupted by a loud bang.

The bullet that had just been shot at high velocity toward the Imperial's face was casually floating in his telekinetic grasp. He lowered his orange-glowing hand, letting the projectile drop soundly to the floor, and aimed a bored look at the huscarl.

"May I know why you shot me?" asked the man.

"You. Teleported. In. The. House." growled the Nord.

Yugo didn't know if he wanted to calm them down, or let them get it out of their system.

"I call the 'life or death situation' clause." provided the Hero. "May I speak now?"

"You may." answered Lydia, lowering her still smocking gun, though without removing her finger from the trigger.

The Oblivion-Era Anchor smiled serenely, and began anew.

"As I was trying to say before _someone_ interrupted me, I'm just returning from the Throat of the World, where I informed old Naxy of Alduin's demise. I also –"

Another crack was heard, and this bullet hit its target… which dissolved into a kaleidoscope of butterflies. A perfectly healthy Hero of Kvatch appeared from behind a bookcase, calmly dusting his costume.

"That's _not_ a life or death situation." barked Lydia.

"It was for me. The annoying lizard didn't want to believe me, and I had to… pound it into his thick skull."

"You fought him?"

"We may have traded a few blows, yes."

"Excuse me but… why is you left sleeve missing?" asked Yugo, his curiosity overwhelming his desire to stay out of whatever was happening.

Lydia fixed the missing piece of clothing, more precisely the ripped and burnt remnants hanging from the shoulder of what had once been a delicately embroidered bicolored suit.

She sighed.

"He got your arm, didn't he?"

"That dragon was really impolite. I'll never understand how Martin can like them." said the Hero in an irritated voice.

"Wait, there are dragons here?" interjected Yugo.

The Hero shot him a side-glance, before refocusing his yellow gaze on the Nord.

"You didn't even tell him that?"

She threw her arms into the air in exasperation.

"No, I didn't, because YOU KEEP INTERRUPTING ME."

"Fine, fine. Apologies accepted." said the Hero, dismissing the subject with a wave of his hand.

The huscarl holstered her gun, but it wasn't necessarily a good sign, as her entire arm was slowly turning into a hungry red inferno, flames escaping from it periodically.

"Care to repeat that?"

"Oh, I had forgotten about the fire-bending. It suits you, really." chirped the Hero.

Lydia's mood didn't changed, and the heat in the small abode continued to rise rapidly.

Yugo decided to step in.

"HEY, can you do that later, please? Maybe when you're not in a house held by _exposed wooden beams_?"

The fire extinguished immediately, but the intense starring was still on.

"That's an improvement, I suppose. Now, what was that about dragons? Aren't they supposed to be extinct here?"

"A few are still around." explained Lydia. "And Alduin was supposed to bring the others back to life."

"And Hero here stopped him, right. But who is this… Old Naxy?"

"Paarthurnax the Elder, master of the Greybeards and probably the strongest dragon around, now that Alduin's gone."

"He's also extremely stubborn." said the Hero. "He ignored my attempts when I tried to introduce myself, ate my arms, and I had to punched him in the ribs for him to listen to what I had to say."

"He _ATE_ your arm?" exclaimed the Argonian.

The other man shrugged.

"Don't worry, its nothing I can't will back in place… though it was pestering."

"But how does that… right, Daedric Prince, nevermind."

"Why did you went there anyway?" asked Lydia, still glaring at the Imperial. "You didn't box a dragon around just to tell him about Alduin, right?"

"No, that is correct. I also informed him about the loops, and shared a few words regarding our little visitor here. He's ready to receive him to train his Dovah Sos."

Lydia's jaw dropped to the floor. She was apparently surprised that the man could have acted like he had.

Yugo was just… confused.

"Huh… what's a Dovah Sos exactly?"

"A gift from Akatosh, and what makes you a Dragonborn. The overgrown lizards would translate it as the 'dragonblood', but that is incorrect, as it actually refers to your dragon soul."

The Argonian's eyes bulged out quite comically, almost making the Hero snicker.

"MY WHAT?"

Okay, so he may have snickered now.

* * *

So, as a Dragonborn, he somehow had received the blessing of the god of time, Akatosh. This had turned his soul into that of a dragon, despite being nowhere close to them in biology.

That would allow him to use the art of the voice, the Tuh'um, to understand and speak Dovahzul, the dragon language. But in order to do that, he would have to…

"I REFUSE!" yelled the Argonian.

"You have a good voice, kid." remarked the Hero of Kvatch.

"I'm not killing any dragon. They are peaceful creatures and don't deserve to be hunted."

Those people were killing his brothers and sisters, and _**eating their souls.**_ That was beyond barbaric.

"And you don't have to if you don't want to, Yugo." hurried to explain Lydia. "You can learn to use the Voice through meditation."

"It's less efficient though." added the Hero.

"Hush you." admonished the Nord. "And Yugo, remember that this is not your world. Dragons may be peaceful in your branch, but here, they are mostly savage beasts bent on killing everything that gets between their claws."

Right, different world. He'd momentarily forgotten about that. "You said mostly. Some of them are good, then?"

"A few, yes. Odahviing, Durnehviir, Paarthurnax which we already mentioned… and probably Sahrotaar, now that Miraak's gone."

"Only four? But you're talking about the entire species, right?"

The woman nodded.

"Then how can there be only four friendly dragons?"

"Because those four are exceptions. Dragons kill, that's how they are." said the Hero in a blase tone.

"But… why?"

"They are mostly-immortal creatures, don't care about the flow of time, and have more primal instincts and desires to dominate than anything in existence… including Daedric Princes." he explained. "That's how Tosh made the dragons, and that's why people like you usually dislike this loop."

"What do you mean by 'people like me'?"

"Given your reaction, you are somehow connected to dragons in your baseline, correct?"

"Yes, I'm an Eliatrope, we are a brother species to the dragons. My brother Adamaï's one, and we were born from the same Dofus… huh, that's a dragon egg."

"So you're… what, half-dragon or something? Well congratulations, because your soul now has another setting - and that one is one hundred percent dragon."

"It… changed my soul?" stammered the Argonian

"Well, yes… and no." said the daedra. "Your soul is unchanged, but if it was a dot before, it is now a line. As proud owner of a Dovah Sos, you gained a new… let's say, aspect. If it helps, you can picture it as a coin and it's two sides… wait, even better! Try to see it as a scale." said the Prince. With a wave of his hand, he conjured one from seemingly nowhere.

"One of the sides is Eliatrope –" here, he gestured to the pan on the left; after waiting a moment to let it sink in, he pointed to the pan on the right "– and one side Dragonborn."

Then he began to play with the device. "No matter what you do, it's constantly shifting, even if only slightly. One moment, you're your baseline half-dragon self –" the first pan was high in the air, while the other was hanging low "– and the next, you're getting slowly closer to a real dragon, if not in body, at least in mind." he explained, letting the scales return to an equilibrium, before forcing the first pan down.

"And since Tosh made dragons and Dragonborns on the same blueprint, whenever that aspect of your soul is winning, you will find yourself wanting to maim and dominate… pretty much everything." he concluded, canceling his conjuration.

Yugo blinked.

He had misheard that… right?

He wasn't really turning into a mad beast, right?

Right?

"It's not something that can be left unsupervised, especially since you're looping and will keep encountering new challenges. And challenges _provoke_ the Dovah Sos. So it leaves you with two options." continued the Imperial. "You can keep calm by feeding on other dragons' souls."

"I'LL NEVER –"

"Yes, yes, we know, you're not our first dragon-lover. Then there's the most commonly used option two. You meet old Naxy and meditate the heck out of yourself to keep your Dovah side leashed and your instincts under control. And what a coincidence, I just ran into him and he's waiting for you… ain't that convenient?" he finished with a mad grin.

* * *

Master Arngeir, respected Greybeard, was interrupted in the middle of his breathing exercises.

It was strange, the villagers from Ivarstead had provided some supplies just the day before, and they weren't expecting any other visitors.

Curious, the old mage walked slowly to the monastery's doors, and push them open. What he saw behind caused him to raise a wrinkled eyebrow.

In front of him stood an Argonian wrapped up in thick fur clothing, his face lightened up by a magical candlelight floating by his head and twin dwemer daggers adorning his side.

"Welcome to High Hrothgar, pilgrim. I am Master Arngeir, leader of the Greybeards. How may I help you?"

The Argonian bowed deeply, and began to speak.

"Hello, honorable Master. My name is Yugo, and I am a dimensional traveler currently replacing your Last Dragonborn. As such, I am in need of a few advices regarding my Dovah Sos. Oh, and my friend Sheogorath already met with your leader, Paarthurnax, so he should be expecting me. May I come in, please?"

* * *

Yugo watched the man's eyes grow to ridiculous proportions, and he had to bite his lower lips to restrain a laugh.

Hero may be the Mad God, but he sure knew his stuff when it came to pranks. He also had excellent advices about alteration and illusion magics, and their applications, while Lydia could be one hell of a combat instructor… and a gossip queen with dirt on everyone.

The sneakily smirking Argonian followed the dumbfounded and still silent Greybeard in the monastery.

Even if he missed the World of Twelve, he'd come to like this loop, and he would enjoy every second of it.

* * *

1.01 - That seems like a pretty safe assumption, right? Personally, I even think that "Qilby did it." should be an all-purpose excuse.

1.02 - Allying himself with his first enemy to go after his second. It probably would have worked... if Qilby had truly been responsible. Sorry, little Eliatrope.

1.03 - Poor, poooor Yugo... well, Yagea.

1.04 - Welcome to the multiverse, Yugo. Also, thanks to Laxianne for female!Yugo's name, and thanks to TangleKat and dragonraptyr for their help on that loop.


	2. Chapter 2

Those new loops fell out of a portal, right on my doorstep. Seriously.

* * *

2.01

* * *

Yugo blinked Awake, and quickly examined his surrounding. He was apparently in _The Crusty Gobball_ 's kitchen, back in his home loop… for now.

The Anchor slowly tasted the blanquette cooking in a pot he'd taken the habit of Awakening to, and allowed himself a small smile.

"Perfect."

If the three Emelkian children watching – whose names he'd long since given up on learning – sincerely believed him to be talking about the meal, the Eliatrope's word had another meaning entirely. He had, in fact, stealthily checked his abilities.

Subspace pocket containing his loopers' guide – well, Lydia's, really – and meditation exercices received from Paarthurnax? Accessible.

Dovah Sos? Currently serene.

Magicka? Slowly but steadily coursing through his veins like hundreds of bolts of lightning.

Extremely pleased, the Anchor turned toward the kids and his smile became a predatory grin, one he'd learned from his 100% certified crazy of a daedric somewhat-friend and surprisingly excellent magical tutor.

"Arena? Fine by me, but it's three on one, and I'm making the scenario."

The youngsters, rather disturbed by the Eliatrope's expression, agreed anyway.

"Great, then the three of you will be heroes of old, all blessed by the gods in their own way."

Yugo turned to the oldest kid, and began to give him his new identity.

"The Nerevarine, oldest of them all. A mortal who became an immortal by overcoming an unholy plague and cleansing his homeland of its presence. He had a noble heart, and favored the bow."

The boy saluted in the way usually employed by Cra guards.

The Anchor nodded, and moved on to the middle kid.

"If the Nerevarine saved an entire country, the Hero of Kvatch saved an entire dimension… twice. He used his wits and magical abilities to stop an invasion of demonic forces, led by two rampaging gods, one of which he fought himself in hand to hand combat. In doing so, he became a divine himself."

"So I'm a… Sacrier?" hesitated the kid.

"No, you're a Masqueraider, but one thinking about as much as a Iop on the battlefield."

"Iops don't think on the battlefield… or anywhere." provided the 'Nerevarine'.

"Precisely." smirked the Eliatrope.

"But you just said that he was smart."

"Oh, he was… but not while fighting. Whenever he faced an enemy, he became a real fury and unleash pretty insane moves. Some even said that he was like an entirely other person… an insane one." finished the Eliatrope with a smile.

The appointed 'Hero of Kvatch' grumbled. He didn't want to play a maniac… but if it was just a one time thing, then maybe he could make an exception.

Besides, he was a god. How cool was that?

"Well, you're all good to go now, and –"

"Hey, you forgot about me." complained the third child, puffing his cheeks in annoyance.

"I'm sorry little one, I didn't see you there." replied Yugo mirthfully.

The kid harrumphed.

"But that was your strong point, right? Being invisible, hitting when his enemies least expected it, such were the skills of the Dragonborn. While he had the soul of an immortal dragon, it's with his mortal body that he prevented the enslavement of mankind… and brought the harbinger of the end of time to its knees. His glorious act didn't save a country, nor a world, it saved the entirety of existence."

The kid was beaming now.

His grin was making it hard for his attempt at moving sneakily like a Sram to be taken seriously.

"But what about you?" suddenly asked the 'Hero of Kvatch'. "Who are you?"

"And why are we after you?" added the 'Nerevarine'.

"Oh, but you're not after me." replied the Eliatrope. " _I_ am after _you_."

"What?"

"I won't give you my name, but you can call me Huscarl. You three idiots were crashing at my place yesterday, and disappeared in the morning, leaving me with the cleaning up. So I grabbed my trusty old sword, and decided to give chase to you to make you pay for your poor manners."

The kids gulped, seeing the same grin appear once more on their friend's face.

"But… what kind of scenario is that?" innocently asked the 'Dragonborn', utterly perplexed.

The reply confused him even more.

"An historical reconstitution."

* * *

2.02

* * *

Even on the cruel World of Twelve, few things were deadlier than that particular monster.

With a few thousands pounds under its belt, claws the size of a grown human being, a mouth big enough to swallow an entire aircraft carrier, control over mist, and the ability to spit fire, the beast was basically a war titan… and one of the friendliest dragon this side of the Krosmos.

Grougaloragran dropped to the floor, causing something akin to a mini-quake, and approached his enormous muzzle from the young boy that had just walked up to him.

"Grougaloragran…" whispered the Eliatrope, smiling heartily at the behemoth. The Anchor looked like someone who'd just met a long lost friend, and thanks to the loops, that was somewhat true.

"Hello, Yugo." answered the old dragon, his loud voice echoing around the cave. "Grougaloragran is happy to see you again. You've grown up well."

At those brotherly words of acknowledgment and affection, the Eliatrope's smile seemed to become… warmer. He opened his mouth wide and…

"YOL TOOR SHUUUUUL!"

A deluge of flames escaped the Anchor's parted lips, engulfing a good third of the colossus and raising the room temperature by a pretty good number of degrees.

What was soon to become the Brotherhood of the Tofu, minus one Eliatrope, was now gaping wide at said young Eliatrope… which was absolutely perfect for inhaling the thick smoke raising from the dragon's burning beard.

Briefly seeing his friends' joint expression, Yugo tried to justify his unusual greeting.

"What? That's the dragon way."

But among the increasingly louder coughs they were now making, it went unnoticed… just like his contented grin.

As for Grougaloragran, he simply blinked.

"Dragon customs must have changed since Grougaloragran last visited the outside world. Grougaloragran has much to learn, it seems."

Adamaï looked at his brother in confusion.

"Does this mean that I breathe fire at Yugo now, Grougal?"

* * *

2.03 – by dragonraptyr

* * *

Yugo stumbled, blinking in the bright sunlight.

"Okay." he said, shaking his head. "Not my usual start. No Blanquette, for starters. Umm... memories! Lydia said something about loop memories!"

Taking a deep breath, the young Eliatrope closed his eyes, rifling through his memories. Finding the differences was easy. For one thing, in this loop he wasn't an Eliatrope. For another, his name wasn't Yugo. For some strange reason, this loop had seen fit to call him "Draconix" instead.

A loud whistling filled the air, shaking Yugo from his musings. Trusting his still foggy loop memories, Yugo rolled out of the way, narrowly dodging the tall cone shaped stone that plowed into the ground beside him.

An angry shout filled the forest silence.

"OOOOOBBBBBEEEEELLLLLIIIIIIXXXX!"

Yugo's ears rang from the force of the shout. Shaking his head to clear it, he stood up, nudging the rock with a toe.

"This is... a menhir?" he asked himself, rolling the strange word around on his tongue.

"Are you all right?"

Yugo turned, seeing two men running towards him, a little white dog hot on their heels.

"I'm fine."

The tall one slumped in relief.

"Oh, good. I thought that I might have hit you with my menhir."

The fellow then bent down, picking it up with one hand.

"I was trying to see if Dogmatix here could fetch it, and forgot that you might be in the area."

"That's okay." Yugo said, nodding... before frowning as he contemplated something. "This might seem like a weird question, but are either of you looping?"

Both men looked at each other, and smiled. They swung around to face him, and gave a sweeping bow. "Asterix-" said the short one, "-and Obelix" they announced.

Asterix looked up at Yugo. "And who might you be, young lad?"

Obelix stood up, shifting the weight of his menhir.

"I don't think your name's really Draconix" he said. "Most loopers don't have names like ours."

Yugo scratched his head shyly. "I'm Yugo, the Anchor for the World of Twelve."

"Nice to meet you, Yugo." Obelix beamed. "I'm the Anchor for our little piece of Yggdrasil. It's nice to meet you."

Yugo grinned. "So, what's your loop like?" he asked. "Is there anything I should be wary of?"

"Not really." Asterix replied, the wings on his helmet twitching. "Most loopers find us very peaceful. After a while, it's easy to head off most of the problems, and they aren't that difficult to start with. Mostly, we just take it easy, here."

"And thrash some romans." Obelix added. "We don't hurt them, mind you. And we don't usually go looking for trouble."

Yugo took a deep breath. A nice peaceful loop. And if his memories were any indication, it was a lot like Emelka.

"I think I'll try your baseline." He decided. "If it gets too much, I'll let you know."

"That's fair." Asterix said. "Well then, let me be the first to welcome you to the little village of indomitable Gauls."

* * *

2.04

* * *

It was common knowledge in Yggdrasil that the loopers had created a decent number of clubs. There was of course the canine-only poker union, that other one for genderless loopers, the group for reformed villains, and last but not least, the looping dragons and riders association.

What was less known was that Admins tend to do the very same thing.

Music gods were performing together, hunting gods chasing their preys in pack, wine gods getting plastered with the same brews… and every reptilian Admin, snakes like dragons, were reuniting every few eons to do reptile things like being slothful in the sun… or talking about loop activations.

* * *

Kur, Sumerian deity and first dragon to have ever Ascended, looked around the meeting room.

Apep and Azhi Dahaka were in a corner, ignoring everybody else and talking in hushed tone about… something he probably didn't want to know. Boitatá was actively restraining Bakunawa who, once again, was trying to gobble Xiuhcoatl up – someone really had to explain to the eclipse god that poor Xiuhcoatl wasn't the sun god, but merely guiding him. – while Vritra and Yam were at each other's throats over an old feud. Quetzalcoatl was wisely staying out of it, exchanging wind and storm tips with Illuyanka. Amaru was being his usual weird self – that guy was too many things at the same time, it couldn't be healthy – and Zirnitra was repeating card tricks.

It was time to get this thing running.

"Welcome, friends, to this new assembly." said the primordial dragon to his fellow slithering and flying colleagues. "Before officially opening it, I really want to thank you for attaining. I know that this meeting was called in haste but you still managed to show up, and that really means something."

All the assembled reptiles nodded.

All but one.

"If I remember correctly, you called us all for a very serious matter. And yet, I'm sure that everyone here noticed that two certain persons are missing… again. What will you do about that, _gramps_?" abruptly asked Apep, Egyptian serpentine deity of chaos.

Kur sighed at the god's rudeness. He hadn't got any better in the last centuries, it was a good thing that their meetings were so rarely held.

"You're probably talking about Jörmungandr and Tiamat, right? Well, our esteemed Nordic colleague had a family reunion, and I'm sure that you know what happens to whoever tries to go against Loki Laufeyson."

The chaotic being grumbled, but nodded anyway.

"As for our dear Mesopotamian fellow worker, –" continued Kur, "– she has her own loops to look after, which means that this meeting doesn't concern her as it is about a new branch's activation."

Those words drawn sharp breaths from the assembled Admins.

"Does that answer satisfies you, Apep?"

"It does." reluctantly answered the snake.

"Good, then I officially call this meeting into session. As I just said, a new branch is of concern to us."

"What branch exactly?" asked the strange lama/dragon/eagle mix called Amaru.

"And why does it concerns us?" added the feathered Quetzalcoatl.

"Its official designation is the 'World of Twelve' loop. As to why we're getting it, their universe was – in-loop, of course – created by the Great Dragon God and the Eliatrope Goddess."

The Admins had gleaming eyes by now. A new loop was always good for Yggdrasil, as it was the sign that the World Tree was healing… but a new draconic loop was even better, as it meant that one of them would finally get to work.

"So, what is it like?" asked Xiuhcoatl, clearly excited.

"And who's the Anchor?" added Azhi Dahaka.

"Well, the loop is running around a world governed by twelve gods, linked with a local infernal realm, and containing interstellar travels as well as a few time-travel situations – which were, of course, patched properly. The baseline revolves around Yugo, the last Eliatrope and the selected Anchor."

"So… he's not a dragon?" lamented Zirnitra.

"He's not, though he's extremely close to being one. Dragons and Eliatropes were created at their dawn of time, as brother-species, born from the same eggs."

The god of witchcraft shrugged.

"Close enough."

"That's cool and all, gramps, but who's getting it?"

Kur sighed once more.

Apep and his rudeness, hello again.

"I was coming to it, and you would have known, if you hadn't interrupted me." tiredly said the original dragon "Now, I supervised the activation myself. It went smoothly and the loop is stable enough, which means that my direct expertise isn't required anymore. One of you will thus be in charge of it."

The tension in the room was palpable. A cute bunny covered in BBQ sauce could have hopped around the place, and the Admins wouldn't have made the slightest move to gobble him up. They were all hanging upon the Sumerian god's words.

"The dragons living there are powerful yet peaceful creatures, most of them acting as protectors, or guardians." explained Kur, turning to his primary choice. "They also have a few polymorphic abilities."

As one, all the reptiles looked at the one snake who was both a guardian and a shapeshifter. The Old Tupian god had stayed silent for this entire discussion, but the numerous burning eyes occupying his entire body had kept track of everything, and his curious expression was now slowly turning into one of astonishment.

"Congratulation Boitatá." said the primordial dragon with a proud smile. "You're getting your own office."

* * *

Boitatá was panicking.

Not the kind of panic that he'd felt when Kur had given him the World of Twelve loop, nor the one from when Apep had given him such a dark glare than any source of light in the room had momentarily been smothered out. Those ones had vanished when the elder dragon had congratulated him for his new Anchor's first fused loop.

No, that kind of panic was a novelty to the serpent god. It was the one accompanying an Admin's assigned loop going awry and doing the least expected thing… like making a weird variant and activating a new looper.

The god was dumbly staring at his screen, trying to process the name on it.

"Well, that's an interesting approach."

That broke the Admin's trance, and he turned… to find Kur right beside him. In fact, if he had had shoulders, the other deity would have been reading above them.

"I personally would have activated his pet tofu as first looper, but that does have potential too. Let's see where it goes now."

NOW, Boitatá was panicking.

* * *

Yugo Awoke to find himself in a surprisingly older body. It didn't really bothered him by itself, he was taking that over a female one any day of the week… but it was coming with opening his eyes to the blinding whiteness of a place he had come to hate at least as much as its usual inhabitant, and _that_ disturbed him.

With the loops, he was able to understand infinity… boredom too. And the very concept of the White Dimension was to use those two factors to turn the prisoners into drooling vegetables, terrified balls of nerves, manic lunatics, or any combinations of those wonderful qualities.

If the looper would never forgive Quilby for his past actions, he still felt that the punishment always bestowed upon his enemy was crueler than necessary. Without variants, vacation loops, funny experiments, pranks, or really anything to do at all, he would have gone mad himself in the infinity of … well, infinity.

Talking about the traitor, where was he hiding?

"Quilby!" yelled the Anchor, deciding that he had no time to play hide-and-seek with a mad Eliatrope. "QUILBYYYYY! Get your traitorous ass over here right… now..."

Yugo's voice had broken down, and he almost collapsed to the floor. He'd just received his loop memories, and they weren't pretty.

Quilby wasn't here… but the traitor was.

His unawake self had been jealous of Quilby's maintained memory through the rebirths. Jealous enough that he had decided to go to the one being that could apparently duplicate the ability, Orgonax.

He'd done it… he'd betrayed his people to the Mechasmes.

Quilby had warned him that this was no gift, only a curse. But he hadn't listened, he'd been blinded by envy… and he'd been exiled in the White Dimension for his sins. This Yugo had been the downfall of his world, had caused the death of this version of his brother, while the Quilby of this world had become the Eliatropes' savior.

The Anchor didn't know if he was supposed to laugh at the irony of the situation, or cry in despair at the horror of the new memories he now had.

He remembered blasting them to oblivion with wakfu spears… eviscerating them with his sword… watching the light in their eyes disappears, while laughing like a maniac. Crying was really appealing right now, because while he knew that he'd never done anything of the sort, he now had the proof that he was capable of it… and that terrified him.

His gloomy mood was cut short when the whole dimension shifted. It only lasted for… well, he wasn't sure how long, with the time dilatation on the place, but it was brief enough to catch his attention.

The Anchor focused on his wakfu, tried revealing spells and even Shouted a few times, but whatever that thing had been, it wasn't here with him. That left the protected dimension housing Balthazar and the children – which he wasn't about to check given his status in this variant – and the outside world as only possible sources.

Grabbing one of the Eliacubes he'd stored in his Subspace Pocket, Yugo opened a portal and stepped right through it, leaving the dreadful silent White Dimension.

* * *

The Anchor emerged on the World of Twelve… and was immediately swallowed by a pool of water, dropping his Eliacube in the fall.

Standing knee-down in water, his body drenched, he blindly searched the device around him, his vision impaired by the water slowly running over his face. There, he had it and… wait, that wasn't his cube, that was warm to the touch and furry. Disheveling his hair, the Eliatrope got rid of the warm water and managed to open his eyes to see what he was holding.

It was a dog. A small brown dog whose fur looked singed and whose wide eyes were stuck in an expression of surprise. And right beside the dog, was an Eliacube. But it wasn't _his_ Eliacube, this one had to be the local one, as it was releasing wakfu in an anarchic way, sending sparks in the air. Those outbursts were probably the reasons for the White Dimension's shifts. Acting on instinct, the Anchor extended his arm and cut the erratic flow of energy. He then grabbed the cube, and looked around for his own one.

He spotted it by the pool, right at the feet of a blond man in black trousers and a white vest. The strange person appeared to be frozen solid, looking at him like he'd seen a ghost.

"I'm… here? Now? But Qilby said… and you… two Eliacubes…" he mumbled, eyes constantly shifting from the cube on the floor to the one in the Anchor's hand.

And then, the man moved. His body tensed, his entire stance changed, and his right arm was thrown to the side in a fast move, hand open… and it stayed just like that, uselessly empty.

The Eliatrope blinked. That familiar stance… that opened hand, waiting for a handle to grip… and those eyes. He'd never seen those eyes before, but he recognized the fire buried deep in them.

"N...Nox? Is that you?"

The man's eyes grew even bigger, and his jaw dropped.

"How… why… who are you, Eliatrope?"

"Oh boy, it _is_ you." said Yugo, only realizing moments later what it truly meant.

"Goddess, YOU'RE LOOPING!"

The Anchor decided that it was too much to handle. He put the dog down on the ground, added the Eliacube in his hand on top of the other, and threw himself back into the pond. Letting his body float across the surface and under the perplexed look of an utterly lost Xelor, Yugo sighed tiredly.

"Tolakniir hi ahk, Yggdrasil."

* * *

Yugo was contemplating returning to the White Dimension.

He didn't know if he had somehow angered his Admin, or if the World Tree itself was messing with him, but his current situation was extremely irritating.

Of every single person he kept encountering during his usual two years long trip, of every friends he had out there, Nox had to be his first looper. And it wasn't just any Nox, no. That Xelor couldn't be one of the friendly versions who had joined the Brotherhood, it had to be the one he'd tortured Qilby with.

But maybe it wouldn't be so bad. That particular Nox had already lost everything, his hopes and very reason to live… and with the loops, he had a chance to get them back.

Now, how was he supposed to explain things to the Xelor without risking to freak him out. The Hero's way was out of the question… it left Lydia's way.

"So, you remember those time loops I blamed Qilby for, and for which he told you that he wasn't responsible? Well, turns out that he truly wasn't."

With a wave of his hand, the Eliatrope created a simplistic sketch in draconic runes.

It looked like a giant tree.

"You see, everything began with Yggdrasil…"

* * *

Nox was feeling… well, he truly didn't know what he was feeling.

On one hand, that whole looping-for-eternity thing was strange and, if the now adult Eliatrope was to be trusted, incredibly annoying at time, and boring as hell at others, when it wasn't plainly life-threatening.

On the other hand, it was a chance to make things go down the right path, to avoid unnecessary tragedy, to right ones' wrongs. By the Eliatrope's words, looping was also the promise of countless wonders, in this universe or the next one, nicely wrapped with a potentially unlimited amount of fun.

But those considerations were going right above his head right now.

The Xelor was rather puzzled about his current body, location, the comatose Igole by his side, and the implications of those factors.

He was young, healthy, and in the very cave were his bow-wow had found the Eliacube the first time around. Which meant that this… variant loop, had done exactly what he'd looked for for two hundred years, what one crazy Eliatrope had told him was completely impossible. It had brought him his family back.

Right outside this cave, his wife and three children were waiting for him, probably wondering about what was taking him so long. And that's exactly why he was petrified, stuck in a whirlwind of emotions. He wanted nothing more than to run up to them, embrace them, tell them how he'd missed them, tell them how much he loved them… but he was ashamed of what he'd done, of what he'd become. What if they called him a monster? They would be right, wouldn't they? True, the Eliatrope had stopped him in time, but he'd also explained what he'd originally done during what he'd called his baseline, almost destroying the Sadida's kingdom, and that was nothing but the work of a true monster. What if they rejected him for that? And what if –

"You're worrying too much."

The Xelor was startled at those words… and even more when he saw the compassionate, even understanding look on the Eliatrope's face.

"I know exactly what you're thinking, Nox, and I can tell you that you're going at it in the wrong direction." said his Anchor. "You don't have to fear their reactions, because they don't have to know anything about what you've been through. From their points of view, nothing happened, and nothing prevents you from acting as this time's Nox would. Be the father, the husband that they expect, and everything will be fine."

"I can't lie to them." he replied, voice low and hoarse. He'd already done so much evil deeds, he couldn't possibly lie to them on top of it.

"Then don't, tell them everything."

"They won't understand… I'm a monster."

The Xelor shook his head, he felt terrible admitting this.

"You're right, they won't understand, not truly… but they certainly won't see you as a monster. You were brainwashed, Nox, you lost everything dear to you and Quilby danced on your sanity's grave. You know, I've seen much in the loops, including _true_ monsters. Goddess, I'm one of them, this time around. And I may not know your family, but I'm fairly sure that they'll see exactly what Grougal once saw, what I see right now. Just a confused, lost and loving man in desperate need of a family hug."

The Eliatrope's voice was so warm, so soothing, that the Xelor felt his tensed muscles relax instantly. And his words felt… right, somehow.

Could he just walk out of the cave, and welcome his redemption? Was it truly as simple as this? His raging mind yelled that, yes, it was.

"Will you help me with the explanations, Eliatrope?"

"If you want me to, sure. Helping my loopers is my job as Anchor, after all. And please Nox, call me Yugo." said the senior looper with a beaming smile.

"As you wish, Yugo." replied the Xelor. "Now come, I want you to meet my dear Galanthe and our three wonderful children."

Nox caught himself smiling softly. It felt… good.

* * *

Meeting Nox's little family was a wonderful experience for Yugo. It also tremendously helped the Xelor's damaged psyche, if his tear-strained, and yet visibly happy face was any indication. A little flame had appeared in his eyes, and it wasn't anything like the vengeful and driven fire that usually lighten up them, it was a spark of… something else. Something beautiful.

Once the painful explanations and tearful reunion with her apparently long lost husband had been out of the way, The Xelor's wife had proven to be a delightful person, warming up instantly to the Anchor. The eldest boy, _Quartz, had_ _for his part_ _decided that his father was his new hero, and the other_ time-traveler his new best friend _. Young Pulsar_ _had just acted with all the shyness that his 4 years old self could muster, and hugged Nox through the entire discussion, sending a few glances toward the Eliatrope every now and then. As for Aiguille_ _…_ _the little girl, who had stayed silent all along, had just walked up to Yugo and asked him to look after her father._

 _The Anchor fought back a cuteness overload, and knelt before the girl._

"Don't worry, I will."

The gigawatt smile she send him back broke down any defenses he still had, and the Eliatrope felt himself compelled to add "Would you like to fly on a dragon? They're not really fond of this me, but I'm not him right now, so I'm pretty sure that I can talk them down and –"

He got tackled by the three kids at once and, when he managed to look up, it was to meet three sets of shining eyes and face-splitting grins. An amused Nox was calmly watching, a slightly worried Galanthe in his arms.

Yugo laughed goodheartedly and ruffled the children's hairs.

It didn't matter if he now had to deal with the horrifying memories of his current self. That single moment, and the joy in the kids' eyes, were by themselves more than worth it.

* * *

Back in Adminspace, the first dragon ever whistled in appreciation.

"What an unexpected outcome, I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself. Excellent choice, Boitatá." said Kur with a nod, before exiting the office. "Keep up the good work." he then yelled from the hallway.

The Tupian serpent god could only stare dumbly at the loop's results, not sparring a single glance toward the door, nor hearing any of his superior's words.

What… had just happened?

* * *

2.05

* * *

Yugo blinked Awake, and knew instantly that he wasn't anywhere near the World of Twelve.

There was no blanquette, he was laying in what appeared to be a poorly designed futuristic bed, and a round electricity-powered lamp was dangling from the ceiling.

The thing around his bed, that looked rather superbly like a ball of glass, retracted back into the furniture, and he began to hear a catchy little tune hanging in the air. It was coming from a small radio, which finished to convinced him that he was in a rather advanced technological world.

Taking a look around the room he was currently in, he found it to be rather spare. There was a bed, a toilet, the small table on top of which was throning the radio, and no visible exit.

"Hello and, again, welcome to the Aperture Science computer-aided enrichment center." suddenly said a robotic voice coming from seemingly everywhere.

It then launched itself into a long monologue, which the Anchor felt obligated to listen to. He didn't know where he was at the moment, and had received no in-loop memories whatsoever, so whatever information this robot could give him would be good to take. The recording continued for a moment, even glitching into Spanish and back, before ending with "Stand back, the portal will open in three. Two. One."

With a low humming, an oval portal surrounded by an orange glow appeared on one of the wall.

Yugo approached the rip in space carefully, and examined it closely. That portal looked nothing like his own, and he could even see himself through it.

The Anchor waved at the blue opening to his right, and made a rude gesture. Yep, it was working perfectly… now he absolutely _had_ to find how those portals worked. There was just so much potential behind a viewing screen like this, and with a little work, he may be able to reproduce them, even enhance his own portals.

Grinning like a child, the Anchor jumped through the opening. It was time to find what _tests_ thatAperture Science had in store for him.

* * *

The Eliatrope was baffled at the mere existence of this 'Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device'.

While the thing was severely restricted by the impossibility to create an opening into thin air, or on certain surfaces, it still remained a marvel of technology, and he would get to discover a few things by studying it.

Though it didn't mean that he would lower himself to actively using it for the tests. Why would he, when his own portals were so much better?

Quickly storing the thing in his subspace pocket, the Eliatrope began to cheat outrageously and zapped his way to the next elevator. He regretted doing so when the robotic voice rose again.

"Judging from your last moves, we understand that you are a being classified as, a Looper. Aperture Science is pleased to inform you that the following tests will be upgraded accordingly. Welcome again, to the Portal Branch. We hope you will enjoy your stay."

The Eliatrope felt like cursing.

He probably should have used the gun.

* * *

2..06 – by dragonraptyr

* * *

Yugo blinked.

"That is not a blanquette."

It really wasn't. And the inn looked somewhat... different from normal. If one can consider about eight other chefs all wearing clean lookalikes of Alibert's clothes, shiny and well laid out metal stoves and ovens and pots and pans, as well as plenty of space for preparing food different.

Gingerly, Yugo poked the pan on the stove, careful not to get burned. Tofu wings in hot sauce lay there on the heat, sizzling innocently, steam wafting up at him, some cruel mockery of his friendship with Az.

"I am never, ever, ever telling Az about this loop." Yugo determined, looking at the rest of the dishes. Most of them seemed out of loop, along with being greasy, cheap, and unhealthy. Hamburgers, fries, bacon, pizza, and all other manners of junk food filled the kitchen.

Cautiously, Yugo poked his loop memories.

"Since when is Alibert's restaurant a franchise?"

* * *

2.07

* * *

Lucy Heartfilia, Anchor of the Fairy Tail branch, was following Natsu and Happy – unAwake versions – on a tall and snowy mountain. They were looking for Macao, who had come to fight a colony of Vulcans and was missing ever since. It would turn out that he had been possessed by one of them, but she'd decided to keep that a surprise for now. She wasn't that much into maintaining the baseline, but that was her very first mission at the guild after all, if an unofficial one, and it was a good bonding experience for her and Natsu.

Speaking about baseline, she was supposed to complain about the cold. It didn't bother her anymore, after that one loop in Arendelle, but she was about to explain that to her traveling companions.

So she did a usual, and asked Natsu if she could borrow his blanket. After his firm and expected refusal, she went for her celestial keys and grabbed one of them, a rather simple silver key with the crest of the Clock stamped on its bow.

She twisted it in midair, and recited the appropriate summoning sentence.

"Open Gate of the Clock! Nox!"

Wait, what?

The magic gathered and called forth the desired summon from the Spirit World. Except that it wasn't exactly the one she'd expected. In place of the brown and distinguished grandfather clock, stood a tall man in a strange armor. His arms were covered in bandages, and his face was hidden behind a full helmet.

The spirit – and obviously looper – took a look around him, before fixing his glowing lenses on his Master.

"Hello, Master. How may I help you?" he asked, sending a ping at the same time.

"Can you do anything about that ice storm?" she asked back, responding with a ping of her own.

"Right away."

The visitor mimicked the symbol of infinity with his fingers, the very same symbol the members of Loopers' Laughs had taken as their emblem, and time stopped around them.

"Thank you." said Lucy with a nod. "I'll explain the branch when we'll be off of this mountain, okay?" she added in a whisper, while watching her two friends playing with the immobilized flakes of snow hanging in the air.

"You are most welcome." said Nox, himself smiling at the sweet spectacle. "And that will be much appreciated, thank you."

* * *

2.08

* * *

Anthony Stark, billionaire, genius inventor, superhero and playboy extraordinaire, was about to face a global death threat… again.

The looper known around the Multiverse as the Ironman was currently in one of his rather usual variant, the one saved in the HUB as the Avengers movie, and time was of the essence. Mere moments ago, a very brainwashed Professor Erik Selvig had used a cube of untold cosmic powers to tear a hole in the very fabric of space, opening a gaping passageway to another planet through which an invading force of Chitauri would soon appear, hell bent of conquering Earth and kill its inhabitant.

Now, after so many loops, stopping this was rather easy. He just had to reach the cube, use one of the numerous suits or abilities at his disposal to drain it of its energy, and the portal would collapse.

Dropping of the rooftop of his own tower – Loki was _that much_ of a drama queen – the looper gently sedated the good doctor as to not have him interfere, and approached the horrible metallic conception from which the cube was emanating the portal. There, and after switching his damaged suit for a pocketed version, he threw his armored hand right through the force-field and was about to siphon the exceeding energy when…

"Hey, nice portal."

Right next to him stood a little boy, looking not older than twelve. He was dressed in blue pants and a sleeveless yellow tunic, but the most peculiar detail had to be the enormous hat on his head… that and the fact that he was on the top of a building, looking at a portal vomiting bloodthirsty aliens and was yet acting as calmly as if he had been taking a stroll in a peaceful forest.

"And trust me, I know what I'm talking about."

"So, you're the other looper, I suppose?" asked Tony, receiving a nod from the visitor. "I must admit to being surprise. When you didn't show up after your ping, I'd believed that you would treat the loop as a vacation."

"Well, that was the plan alright. Then I saw this beauty, and I just couldn't resist."

Beauty? The portal? Who was this guy?

"The portal gun was impressive enough, but to do something so large with technology alone is truly an amazing feat. Do you know who created this?"

"That would be Professor Selvig, over there, thought the cube is helping. Why?"

"Do you think he would mind if I pocketed the thing? I would really like to study it."

The kid was looking at him with sparkles in his eyes, and Tony was unable to resist.

"Okay, you _may_ pocket it –"

"Thank you!"

"– once you've helped us with the invasion."

"Invasion? What invasion?" asked the kid, an eyebrow raised.

The local looper simply designated the portal, from which the Chitauri were already pouring.

"Oh, that one. Well, alright, I suppose I can help."

"Good, now give me five minutes to close the portal and then we'll –"

"I can do it faster, if you want."

Tony looked at the other looper, and saw that the guy was completely honest.

It made him curious, and he gave his approval.

"Sure, go ahead." he replied, stepping away.

But if he had expected the kid to reach for the cube, he was disappointed. Instead, the looper turned toward the enormous portal itself, and sat cross-legged and eyes closed. A blue cube disturbingly resembling the Tesseract appeared before him, and he threw his left arm in the air, causing the edge of the rift to glow in a clear blue light. The portal began to shrink down.

"Those invaders, they're bad guys, right? Do you mind if I blast the other side?" suddenly asked the looper, still focused on his task.

"They are, and if you can do that, then do it, I don't mind at all."

The visitor smirked and lifted his other arm. A second portal opened right before the first one, and they merged in a flash. Tony was forced to blink, and when his sight came back, it was to a perfectly clear sky. The Chitauri were even dropping like flies, now that the neural link to their home planet had been shattered by a ray of Wakfu.

Tony's previous disappointment was long gone.

"That was… impressive, kiddo."

"You don't see me calling you sir, so drop the 'kiddo', would you. My name's Yugo, Anchor of the World of Twelve loop."

"Fair enough. Anyway, I'm Anthony Stark, but you can call me Tony. Welcome to the Marvel loops, Yugo."

* * *

2.09

* * *

Nox was quite confident about the incoming fight. After all, he was only about to face the most deadly beast roaming the world, without the power tool he'd used the first time around, and would have to stop it without actually killing it.

"I will get your wakfu, old man, and then I'll pursue the young Eliatrope and his friends." he taunted his opponent, the dragon Grougaloragran, currently in his human form.

Truth was that he wouldn't do anything of the sort, and the reasons were twofold.

Firstly, he was reformed now, and had absolutely no need to collect wakfu. He knew that his original dream couldn't succeed in-loop, and occasional variants provided him with family time anyway.

And secondly, his Anchor could put him down with his hands tied behind his back. He'd done so, in fact, when he'd trained him in earlier loops. Yugo had used and abused his out-of-loop abilities to beat his rear in the ground, mocking him repeatedly with commentaries like "Hey, I almost had to try with this one." and "I may bet on you if you were to face the Xelor god… in a few thousand loops."

But while that had been humiliating, he was prepared now, much more than his opponent who was oblivious to this fact. The dragon was rather motivated by the casually dropped threat now hanging above his proteges' heads. His calm behavior had disappeared, and he'd adopted an aggressive fighting stance.

"You will be stopped, Xelor." scowled the old fighter, smoke slowly escaping from his mouth and nose.

"We shall see." replied Nox, dropping into his own fighting stance, which rewarded him with a raised eyebrow from his adversary.

"You wish to fight unarmed?" questioned the man. "Grougaloragran thought that Xelor used clock hands?"

The looper simply grinned at the dragon.

"Oh, but we are."

In a flash of blue energy, dozens of clock hands appeared around him, floating gently in midair.

"Now, show me your true power, dragon." said Nox as he began a fast-paced form, arms moving in a complicated pattern and accompanied by the hands, moved around by telekinesis. If from the outside, it seemed to form a sort of protective mechanism, anyone caught in it would have understand that it was above all a deadly choreography.

Grougaloragran was trying to analyze the move, when he heard the Xelor whisper a word. If he'd feared earlier than this fight would be though, the mirth in his opponent's voice confirmed it altogether.

"Pulsar!"

The world lost his colors, and all hell broke loose.

* * *

2.01 – Lydia can be scary when she wants to.

2.02 – Traditional dragon salute. Oh, and thanks to dragonraptyr for his help on that one.

2.03 – Apparently, dragonraptyr thought about this fused-loop after comparing Yugo's Eliatrope wings, and the wings on Asterix's helmet.

2.04 – Boitatá is confused, but it doesn't really matter, as long as Kur is happy. Also, hello Nox, welcome to the loops.

2.05 – That fused-loop was an inevitable one. Seriously, you HAD to see it coming.

2.06 – Picture a 60's greasy spoon diner, with every unhealthy-yet-tasty food from the loops, and you've got a good idea of the variant. By the way, the franchise was Ruel's idea, in-loop.

2.07 – I wonder how the Spirit King reacted to someone other than him with the ability to stop time.

2.08 – Those cubes really look alike, and they'll see each other again in the future.

2.09 – Fighting Grougal without the Heliacube is something of a step for Nox. Next time, he may restrict himself further, of fight Rushu instead. Who knows?


End file.
